Hispanic people worry more about deportation than others, survey shows

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Hispanic adults express more concern about the possibility of deportation than other racial or ethnic groups, according to a new study.
Pew Research says some 42% of Hispanics worry "a lot or some" about deportation, compared to 12% of white people and 19% of Asian and Black people.
The Trump administration deported around 152,000 people in its first 100 days.

WASHINGTON — Hispanic adults worry more about deportation than those in other racial and ethnic groups, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

The numbers from the early weeks of the administration of President Donald Trump show that 42% of Hispanic survey respondents worry "a lot or some" that someone close to them could be deported. The figure for white people is 12%, and 19% for Asian and Black people.

Hispanic people "are also more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to worry about being asked to prove their citizenship or immigration status — and to say they have begun carrying documents that prove their status," reads the Pew report.

The report was issued last week but is based on a survey conducted between Feb. 24 and March 2. More specifically, 31% of Hispanic people worry about being asked to provide proof of their status in the country compared to 5%, 20% and 24% for white, Black and Asian people, respectively.

Trump has prioritized detention and deportation of immigrants here illegally, which their advocates in Utah and beyond say has prompted alarm among many in the community. The efforts — lauded by many others — have prompted a sharp drop in encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border involving immigrants and border agents, a measure of illegal immigration, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Monday that deportations in Trump's first 100 days in office totaled around 152,000. The DHS statement said the 152,000 figure is "just the beginning," but the Migration Policy Institute said in a report late last month that at the current pace, the administration will likely "fall well short of its stated goal of 1 million deportations annually."

Either way, many Latinos are feeling nervous about the specter of deportations, though the new data is on par with attitudes during the administration of President Joe Biden and the latter portion of Trump's first term, according to Pew.

Perhaps figuring in the Pew numbers is the preponderance of Latinos in the immigrant population. The group accounted for 45% of the estimated 47.8 million immigrants in the United States, with Asians trailing next, accounting for 28% of immigrants, according to Pew. The Washington, D.C.-based research group said 51% of Latino immigrants expressed heightened concern about the possibility of deportation versus 36% for U.S.-born Latinos.

A clear majority of Hispanic adults, 63%, oppose letting law enforcement officials check the immigration status of people they encounter in their routine dealings. "A majority of white adults (66%) say these checks should be allowed," Pew said.

While increased enforcement has been a key element of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, the administration on Monday announced plans to offer immigrants here illegally $1,000 to self-deport. Immigrants must use the U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement's CBP Home App to qualify.

"This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for U.S. taxpayers. Download the CBP Home App today and self-deport," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.